harmony of the Arabic characters on the seal of a Coptic scribe
in Egypt. And the belly gives origin to her finely modeled and
elastic waist.

"At the thought of her flanks I shudder, for thence depends a
mass so weighty that it obliges its owner to sit down when she
has risen and to rise when she lies.

"Such are her flanks, and from them descend, like white marble,
her glorious thighs, solid and straight, united above beneath
their crown. Then come the legs and the slender feet, so small
that I am astounded they can bear so great a weight."

An Egyptian stela in the Louvre sings the praise of a beautiful
woman, a queen who died about 700 B.C., as follows: "The beloved
before all women, the king's daughter who is sweet in love, the
fairest among women, a maid whose like none has seen. Blacker is
her hair than the darkness of night, blacker than the berries of
the blackberry bush (?). Harder are her teeth (?) than the flints
on the sickle. A wreath of flowers is each of her breasts, close
nestling on her arms." Wiedemann, who quotes this, adds: "During
the whole classic period of Egyptian history with few exceptions
(such, for example, as the reign of that great innovator,
Amenophis IV) the ideal alike for the male and the female body
was a slender and but slightly developed form. Under the
Ethiopian rule and during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt itself we
find, for the first time, that the goddesses are represented with
plump and well-developed outlines. Examination of the mummies
shows that the earlier ideal was based upon actual facts, and
that in ancient Egypt slender, sinewy forms distinguished both
men and women. Intermarriage with other races and harem life may
have combined in later times to alter the physical type, and with
it to change also the ideal of beauty." (A. Wiedemann, _Popular
Literature in Ancient Egypt_, p. 7.)

Commenting on Plato's ideas of beauty in the _Banquet_
Emeric-David gives references from Greek literature showing that
the typical Greek beautiful woman must be tall, her body supple,
her fingers long, her foot small and light, the eyes clear and
moderately large, the eyebrows slightly arched and almost
meeting, the nose straight and firm, nearly--but not
quite--aquiline, the breath sweet as honey. (Emeric-David,
_Recherches sur l'A